Betty+Roe


 * SUMMARY: "Betty," age 29, died around 1974 from an anesthesia mishap during a safe, legal abortion.**

"Betty" is one of the women Life Dynamics identifies on their "[|Blackmun Wall]" as having been killed by a [|safe and legal abortion].

Betty was a 29-year-old mother of four when she went to a clinic for a first-trimester abortion sometime between 1972 and 1975.

Within seconds of being injected with a local anesthetic, Betty said that she didn't feel well. She began twitching and became pale and short of breath. Betty‘s blood pressure fell, and clinic staff began resuscitation. She was transferred to a local hospital, where she died the following day.

Since there was no evidence of an overdose, physicians concluded that Betty may have had an allergic reaction, or that the medication may have accidentally been injected into her bloodstream.

As you can see from the graph below, abortion deaths were falling dramatically before legalization. This steep fall had been in place for decades. To argue that legalization lowered abortion mortality simply isn't supported by the data.



LDI Sources: "Deaths From Paracervical Anesthesia Used For First-Trimester Abortion, 1972-1975," Grimes, Cates, //New England Journal of Medicine//, 295:25, Dec. 16, 1976, p. 1397-99

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